1.8taeboi

hey, my name's T.J., and I'm so glad I stumbled accross this web forum. I have a 2000 VW Golf 1.8t. Anyways, if you guyz can, please help me out here.
My dad has a '93 Lexus ES300, but was bought in '92. It has over 300,000 miles on it since he commuted 2-3 hours home to work from '93-2000. Anyways, his car's finally died down after all those years, and I've basically convinced him to do an engine swap.

Are there any "easy" engine swaps for my dad's car? Would the supra inline six fit in there easily and nicely? If not that engine, what are my other options?

I'm going to contact trd or rod millen and talk to them about what I could, but anyways, if any of you have done a swap or know of one that I can do, please let me know.

Also, what can we es300 owners do about the ghetto taillights?
The headlights are definitely not bright enough(we changed the bulbs to PIAA's-it helped a little bit, but not enough). Any headlamp assemblies I can swap it with?

How hard would a manual(stickshift) conversion be?

Anyone have any body kits? Pics?

Thanks a lot, sorry I have so many questions, but if anyone can help, it will save our family a lot of money.

face

Sup! Welcome to the forum. Can't help you with the engine/tranny transplant, but I can shed some light about the taillamps. For the 1995 and 1996 model year, Toyota (mildly) updated the design of the ES300's taillamps. Since it is still essentially the same body, the new lamps should fit your '93. It newer reflectors may be brighter than the 1993 design. Check www.taprecycling.com regularly to get a used part. BTW, dim lamps can also be attributed to fouled electrical connectors or old weather-damaged reflectors. New bulbs may not make much of a difference.

About the engine, putting a Supra motor in is probably a lot more ambitious that putting in a 1MZ-FE motor from a 1997-1998 Camry and popping in a compatible Kazuma supercharger from TRD. You'll have about 250-hp with the supercharged 1MZ-FE.

P.S. I got a chuckle out of your tag "tae boi". This was the nickname of a certain lactose-intolerant buddy of mine

1.8taeboi

do you know of anyone who has done the 1MZ-FE swap into my generation ES300? Any turbo's available for 1MZ-FE?

I really want a stick shift, and I saw that one of the ClubLexus members has a 5speed '92 ES300. Was a manual available for the ES300 that year(1992)?

Are there any limited slip differentials available for the ES? Maybe Quaife? Peloquin?

BTW, I'm still looking around all over the net for an ES300 body kit. I know there's at least one out there somewhere since I saw one in an ad in Sport Compact Car. The name might've been Lexani or something like that.

Still, if anyone knows of an easy engine swap, perhaps even jspec motors, please list the engines. Thanks

1.8taeboi

hey, well, I've talked to my friend's dad, who's an automechanic, and he basically recommended getting the same engine that's in my engine bay right now, but having it rebuilt.(Different engine would probably mean fabricating custom engine mounts and buying a whole lot of other components). Are there any aftermarket cylinder heads, camshafts, that sorta thing, that I should look into? Since I do not know of any turbochargers for the '93 ES300, I'm probably going the cheap way(NOS). So with this in mind, what other components should I buy to compensate for nitrous oxide?

L_Sport

Get the 1mzfe engine like flipside said, this is a direct swap with no modifications needed, although it may require a reprogramming of the ECU, but its worth it, get man I wish my engine was blown out so I could swap mine, the 1mzfe has a trd supercharger for it!

flipside909

The 3VZ-FE V6 has the 5spd option and it was a very rare find. I never said the 1MZ-FE and the 3VZ-FE are direct swaps. They are not. You have to do alot of mods to do this. There is no manual tranny available for the 1MZ-FE for 94-96 and 98 and up. As for the ECU of the 92-93, it is not the same for the 94-96.